Shelter of Hope (New Beginnings Book 8) Read online

  He passed the ball to another teammate, then glanced toward her while guarding Cody. “We’ll be there soon. We’re about to beat these guys.”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it,” Cody said, then dodged around Zane.

  “That’s fine. Come when you can. That is if there is any food left.” She swiveled around on her heel and plunged back through the crowd watching the friendly rivalry. But she did throw one last look back at the court in time to see Cody steal the ball from Zane.

  * * *

  Out of the corner of his eye, Cody glimpsed Maggie disappear into the crowd right before he sent the ball to Brady nearer the basket. Another point and they would win. Brady weaved around a boy about his size and leaped up, releasing the ball. It went through the hoop.

  “Yes!” Brady pumped his arm up and down. “We won.”

  Cody slapped him on the back. “You’re good. I can’t believe you didn’t want to play. I’m glad you decided to.”

  “So am I.” His grin spread across his face. “Did Mom say something about eating?”

  “Yes. It’s starting to get dark.”

  Zane approached. “And the fireworks will start in forty-five minutes.” While the crowd dispersed, he swiped his hand across his forehead. “I hope you’re going out for the team this year, Brady.”

  “Maybe.”

  Zane paused. “Maybe? You’re a natural.”

  Cody noticed some of the excitement of the game was wearing off for Brady and he was beginning to retreat. “I have to agree, but with your quickness and size, football would be a good sport, too.”

  “Oh, yeah, you’re right,” Zane agreed. “How about it, Brady? I used to play for the Hope Mustangs.”

  Brady slowed his pace, his head dropping some. “Maybe. I don’t know what I wanna do.”

  Zane exchanged a look with Cody.

  He shook his head and said, “So what did your mom fix? That’s all Zane has been talking about.”

  Brady lifted his gaze to Cody. “Her strawberry and blueberry cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream. She makes the best.”

  “I can attest to that,” Zane said. “I’m personally looking forward to the sandwiches she made out of a brisket she cooked last night. Drove my dad crazy while he was putting finishing touches to the living room. Dad has loved putting Bienville back the way it was. One more room and the house will be like before the storm.”

  Brady snorted and sped up.

  Zane frowned. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “Not really. Has anything changed for Brady as far as the house goes since the hurricane?”

  “His room. With the fire a few months back, he had to move it.”

  “Ahh, that might explain his actions. He doesn’t see that everything is back to normal since Hurricane Naomi.”

  “Of course not. You and I both know that doesn’t happen, not even years later. A disaster changes a place.”

  “And people.” Cody observed Brady grab a sandwich and chips then park himself away from the rest of the family.

  Cody sat down on the blanket between Hannah and Maggie. “Is there any food left?”

  “Barely. Uncle Keith and Gideon nearly took it all.” Maggie handed him a paper plate with a sandwich. “But the desserts are still intact.”

  “Zane says I have to try some of yours.”

  Maggie grinned. “It’s your patriotic duty to try some.”

  “Patriotic?” Cody took a bite of his sandwich, the taste of the barbecue brisket delicious.

  “It’s red, white and blue. What else would you have on the Fourth of July?”

  “You got me there. I picked up the only thing left at the grocery store on the way over here.” There had been many Fourths of July while he’d been out of the country. It was nice this year to be here. Last year he’d been in an Asian country damaged by an earthquake that had left many homeless. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen fireworks.”

  “I love them. The town shoots them right offshore.”

  Hannah leaned around her brother. “Mustang Island? How did it get its name?”

  “In the 1800s at the time of the Civil War, some horses escaped their owner and swam to the island. A small herd lived there for many years.”

  “Do they now?”

  “No. A hurricane at the turn of the century took what was left of the herd.”

  “How sad.”

  While Hannah and Maggie engaged in a conversation about the horses, Cody saw a connection growing between his sister and Maggie. Hannah, much like him, held herself back from most people, but not Maggie. She was so open it was hard to resist that in her.

  By the time darkness fell and dinner was over, Cody lounged back on the blanket, his head cushioned by his crossed arms. He turned slightly toward Maggie next to him, her face beautiful in the soft glow from the parking lot lights a couple hundred feet away. “So, this is the best way to watch the fireworks?”

  She angled her head so he couldn’t see her expression, but he felt her gaze on him. “The only way. Your neck won’t get cramped. Since Mustang Island isn’t far from shore, they’ll go off practically on top of us.”

  The parking lot lights blinked off. Right after that, a boom filled the air, followed by a bright streak shooting up into the black sky. The fireworks opened up into a glittering shower of red, blue and silver. Cody glanced at Maggie and found her staring at him. The glow from the fireworks highlighted her face in a brilliance that captivated him. He missed the second one exploding above him because her gaze roped his full attention.

  He inched closer to her and whispered, “Thank you for talking with Hannah.”

  “You’re welcome. She reminds me of myself thirteen years ago.”

  “Sometimes it’s hard to help someone you’re close to.”

  “Yeah, I’m finding that out with Brady. I was glad to see him playing in the game with y’all earlier. He likes basketball, but he hasn’t played much with his friends lately. How hard was it to get him to agree?”

  “We needed one more kid. He took a look at the others and decided he would do it.”

  “Peer pressure. Sometimes it can work for the good.”

  “As most things, there’s a good side and a bad side to peer pressure. What’s important is being able to teach our kids the difference between the two.”

  “You’ll make a good father.”

  He stiffened at the implication of her statement. He’d had a good father who had tried to do his best. He wasn’t often there for him and Hannah, but that happened when a man served his country and had a job that caused him to be gone a lot. Cody had learned to accept those times his father couldn’t come to a football game, a school play or whatever he’d done as a child.

  But until Maggie had made the comment, he hadn’t really thought about being a father. With Beth the conversation had never come up. Did he really have what it took to be a father? He did know he wouldn’t be one unless he could do more than his father. Good intentions weren’t always enough for a child who needed a parent. He’d seen what happened when a parent neglected his child for work or something else. And right now, he had dedicated himself to his work.

  Chapter Five

  Maggie pulled into the dirt road that led to Nathan’s farm on the outskirts of Hope on the north side of Interstate 10. When it was quiet and the wind blew from the south, she could hear the traffic on the highway zooming toward New Orleans or Mobile.

  “I’m here under protest.” Brady folded his arms over his chest and stared out the side window. “I don’t think I’m ready for another dog after Frisky.”

  “That’s fine. No pressure here. We’re mainly coming to help Nathan finish up. Bienville is almost back to normal. It’ll be nice to help our cousins get their house fixed up, too.”

  Brady sighed so loudly the sound filled the whole interior of the car. “And I’m not riding even if Carly asks me to.”

  “Fine. We’re probably not going to have time for it anyway.”<
br />
  “What are we gonna do? Work the whole time?”

  “That’s the point of today.” Maggie made sure that Cody had made the right turn and was still following her car.

  “It’s Saturday.”

  “In the summer. Saturday isn’t any different from the other days of the week for you.”

  Another big release of a loud breath.

  “Brady Sommerfield, when have you not wanted to help others, especially in our family?”

  “What if it’s for nothing?”

  “It won’t be.”

  “How do you know? One day our home was there, and the next it was almost destroyed.”

  The anger-filled words hung in the air between them, reinforcing what Cody had said concerning her son’s latest behavior, that Brady could be reacting to the hurricane, even months after the fact, especially now that hurricane season had started again.

  “You’re right. I don’t know one hundred percent, but most likely it will be fine,” Maggie said to his first outward comment concerning the hurricane in months.

  “That’s not good enough.”

  She parked in front of Nathan’s brick one-story ranch-style house. “That’s all I can give you. Life is full of change. It’s how we handle the change that’s important. It’s all we can control.”

  “Still not good enough.” Brady shoved open his door and jumped from the car.

  The slam of the door reverberated through the inside, underscoring her child’s frame of mind. If she didn’t see Cody coming toward her out of the side mirror, she would have banged her forehead against the steering wheel in frustration. Instead she gripped it so tightly pain zipped up both arms.

  When Cody paused outside her vehicle, she exited it and leaned against its side. “Just in case you couldn’t read his body language, Brady isn’t happy about being here, even with the suggestion he could find a dog to take back to Bienville.”

  Cody glanced at his sister climbing from his car. “On the other hand, Hannah was downright thrilled she was getting out of the apartment. If she doesn’t get a job soon, she and I will go crazy.” His sister made her way to the porch and knocked on the door.

  “Has she talked with Zane yet?”

  “Monday. He was in New Orleans these past few days.”

  “I think that’ll be a formality mostly. He was interested in the fact she’s an electrician. He should be finished putting together this team he needs for a new project sometime next week.”

  “But what’s she going to do when she can’t work because of her pregnancy? That will be only a couple months away.”

  “Knowing Zane, he’ll use her somewhere else until she can work again as an electrician. Quit worrying. Hope takes care of its own.”

  “But she isn’t part of the town.”

  “She lives here, doesn’t she?”

  Cody cocked his head to the side and stared at her. “Yes, but...”

  She placed her hand on his arm. “Quit worrying. That’s an order.”

  One of his eyebrows rose. “An order?”

  “Yep. Now let’s go inside. Nathan is gonna wonder where we are.”

  The front door flew open, and Nathan’s six-year-old daughter charged out onto the porch. “Maggie, what’s takin’ ya so long? Dad’s got workin’ on his mind.”

  “Coming. Carly, this is Cody.”

  “Hannah’s brother?”

  “Yes, I am. So, you’ve already met my sister I see.”

  “Well, of course, she’s a guest. She’s gonna have two babies soon. She told me I could hold them after they’re born. One day I’m gonna be a babysitter and make lots of money.”

  Maggie pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. Carly was a whirlwind, and there was no stranger to her. Before the day was over, she would have both Hannah and Cody’s complete past. Then again maybe only Hannah’s. Cody was very closed about his life, and Maggie couldn’t help but wonder why.

  Nathan came outside to greet Maggie and Cody. “You don’t know how much I appreciate this. I’m so tired of repairing this house. I just want this over with.”

  “Yeah, we still have things to do in the barn.” Carly scurried around her dad and into the living room where she said, “When we get through, Brady, I’ve got some new animals to show you. There’s one dog that really needs a home.”

  Her son mumbled some reply, and knowing his present attitude, Maggie was glad she didn’t hear it. “Point us in the right direction, and we’ll get to work.”

  * * *

  Later that afternoon with hot pink paint from Carly’s room all over her, Maggie followed Nathan outside. Brady trudged behind them while Nathan’s daughter skipped ahead of her dad. Cody remained in the house finishing the last touches to the dining room, while Hannah waited for her brother on the porch, taking a few minutes to rest.

  Nathan opened the barn door and swept his arm in front of him. “As you can see, I’m trying to repair the pens and fenced area while at the same time expanding what we have and running my veterinary practice in Hope. There are so many animals that were left stranded after the hurricane and not enough places to put them.”

  “Daddy, you forgot there isn’t enough people to adopt them.”

  Nathan tousled his daughter’s red hair. “Yeah, you’re right, pumpkin. Not from lack of work on your part, though.”

  Carly thrust out her chest. “I’ve got the most important job. I was doing good ’til school let out. A lot of the kids helped me.” When Brady came into the barn, she tugged on his hand. “C’mon. I gotta show you this dog. We just got him. He reminds me of Frisky.”

  Brady threw Maggie a narrow-eyed look as his cousin dragged him out the rear double doors. She decided she’d better follow. As she left the barn, she glimpsed Cody and Hannah coming in the other entrance. Cody looked about as bad as she did with muted green paint splotches on his old clothing as well as his arms and legs.

  Carly gestured toward a large pen with a chain-link fence surrounding it. “There.”

  Brady peered at a black Lab. After a few seconds he looked away, his gaze latching on to another dog by itself hobbling across the pen toward him. Its ears perked, the mutt made its way to Brady on only two front legs. Her son entered the pen and squatted by the light brown dog. “Who is this?”

  “That’s Sadie. She’s been with us for ages. Daddy found her after the hurricane and saved her life. You like her?”

  Brady rose. “She gets around pretty good for only having two legs.”

  “I had to amputate the back ones, or she would have died,” Nathan said as he came out of the barn with Cody and Hannah.

  Sadie sniffed Brady’s hand dangling at his side and nudged it until he rubbed her behind the ears, but he kept his attention trained forward, not making eye contact with the animal.

  “She’s just now getting a handle on how to get about.” Nathan held open the gate while the rest of them went into the pen with Carly and Brady.

  “Do you see a dog you’d like to adopt?” Maggie scanned the rest of the animals—two goats and another curly white-haired dog no more than a foot tall—in the twelve-by-twelve pen.

  “I don’t want a pet.” Brady took a step forward.

  “We’ve got more out back in some other pens.” Carly danced about, going from one animal to the next. “I can show you.”

  Sadie rubbed herself against Brady’s leg, then nosed his hand. He glanced down, opened his mouth as though to say something but instead snapped it closed and knelt again at Sadie’s side, petting her.

  “Aren’t you a cute one,” Hannah said, stooping to pick up the fluffy white ball.

  “Don’t even think it, Hannah. Our apartment complex doesn’t allow pets.”

  “Really? That’s such a shame. She could use a home, too. You know, one of the first things I got when I was on my own was a cat.”

  Cody shot Maggie an exasperated look.

  She chuckled. “I know that Mrs. Abare owns that small complex. I have a feeling, C
ody, you could change her mind with some logical arguments in favor of the animal. She has a soft heart. Appeal to her sense of helping victims of the hurricane.”

  “A lot of times people don’t realize animals are victims of disasters, too.” Nathan settled his hand on Carly’s shoulder. “I’ve been working on a way for Sadie to get around well. I’m almost finished making it.”

  “You should see it, Brady.” Carly grabbed his hand again and began pulling him toward the gate.

  Brady jerked away from the little girl. “Stop it.” He tore past his cousin and slammed open the gate, then hurried toward the pasture.

  Not sure what to do, Maggie just stared as her son planted himself at the fence at the end of the drive, leaning against the wooden slats. Words swam around in her mind, but she didn’t know what to say to Brady. His body language screamed anger. At her for suggesting he get another pet? At what he had said in the car coming to the farm? Before she could move, Cody strode from the pen and headed toward her son.

  She ran after Cody and caught up with him partway down the drive. “I appreciate what you want to do, but I have to be the one to talk to Brady. Once he gives Sadie a chance, he’ll want her. I know my son. He loves animals. He used to help Nathan when he could, especially in the summer.”

  “I don’t know if you should force Sadie on Brady.”

  “Spoken like a person who hasn’t had a pet. They’re therapeutic. You said so yourself.”

  “So, you think Brady will be fine after he bonds with Sadie?”

  “He’ll focus on her problems, not his own. It has worked for me.”

  “Problems catch up with you if you don’t deal with them.” Intensity poured from Cody, his arms straight at his sides, his hands opening and closing.

  “It sounds like you’re talking from experience.”

  “Aren’t most life lessons learned from our own mistakes?”

  She peered toward her son, whose shoulders hunched forward, his head hanging down. “We’ll have to debate this another time. I have a son to talk to.”

  “Don’t just talk to him, listen, too.”